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We are Galloping the Globe!

This year Emelie and Kenny are both taking part in a unit study called “Galloping the Globe.” The unit study is written for a broad range of ages; Kenny is involved in the class for 2nd-5th graders and Emelie is teaching the Pre-K/Kindergarten class along with a parent helper.

The first “take home” assignment was to make a globe. Sounds easy, right?
Umm…says WHO?!

First, Emelie had Kenny measure and pour four cups of water into a saucepan to set to boil.

While waiting for the water to boil, Kenny measured one cup of flour and one cup of water into a Pyrex and stirred until it was thin and smooth.

Next, they poured the flour/water mixture into the boiling water, simmering a few minutes before pulling it off to cool.

After removing to a Pyrex, and tired of listening to her brother complaining about how long it took the mixture to cool, Emelie feigned a threatening posture.

Kenny is obviously fearful for his life.

Putting the mixture back in the kitchen for a while (it really does take a long time to cool), Kenny and Emelie finish cutting the newspaper strips they will dip into the glue mixture to make the paper mache globe.

The strips were supposed to be about one inch wide–ours were anything from one-fourth an inch to three inches wide. After handling the strips I know why the directions recommended one inch strips. The wider the strips, the more it “buckles” as it wraps around the balloon. I could be prideful and say we meant to do that to create a semblance of topography, but I’d be lying. That said, it is a nice little side effect.

The original supply list suggested the use of “round” balloons, but we didn’t have “round” balloons, so we used our leftover party balloons – which are, as you can see, rather oval.

I should stop here and mention that another Momma in our homeschool co-op had the bright idea to use the awesome, round, punch balloons found at most party supply stores. They are significantly larger than party balloons and round, not oval. They make beautiful paper mache globes. Live and learn I tell ya.

Creating a paper mache globe is by no means an easy task; it is definitely a two person job. Trying to hold one’s balloon while dipping and wrapping strips works much, MUCH better with one person holding the balloon while the other layers it with strips.

Now if only I could get a recording of Em singing, “You are so beautiful to meeeeeee!”

Look closely and you can see her strip says, “I can’t resist my mom’s baking.” We had a good laugh over that one.

This is an ooey-gooey process. Dipping strips into the glue mixture, wiping off the excess with your fingers and wrapping each strip around the ballon takes A VERY LONG TIME.

After Emelie described the flour/water mixture as feeling like snot, Kenny was a bit reticent to get his fingers mucky.

Eventually he bit the bullet and began dipping strips and wrapping his own balloon.

Did I mention this was/is/will forever be one of the messiest crafts ever?

With the first layer behind them, the globes were hung from some workout equipment in the garage. The directions said the globe had to dry for at least 8 hours between applications? WHAT?!!

I was never so happy to have started a project bright and early.

Eight hours later it was night-time and no one really was in the mood to get dirty again.

Emelie and Kenny pushed through but decided, as they hung their globes back in the garage to dry overnight, they would NOT follow up with a third layer per the directions. Nope, they were going to hope for the best with only two layers of paper mache.

We later found out that we really didn’t need to wait 8 hours between applications.

Grrrrrr!

The next morning the globes were dry and ready to paint. The directions said that when the globe was completely dry the ballon inside would usually pop itself. We didn’t want to test our luck, so we didn’t pop the balloon before painting it.

For the record, a larger paint brush would have sped things up a little. Again, live and learn.

Kenny wanted to paint, not draw, his continents, but he quickly ran out of green paint.

In the end he painted over the green and I went looking for some printable, cut-out continents online. I found some and had to blow them up a bit using our copier. I won’t say they are “to scale,” but he was happy enough.

The “globes” have already traveled back and forth to our Tuesday Co-op twice.

The first time was primarily to show them off and discuss the continents. Unfortunately, that was the day Emelie’s globe developed a severe fault line after one of her students accidentally fell on it.

Kenny’s globe managed to make it home unmarred and so this past Tuesday he was asked to take it back to co-op to accompany him as he gave his Explorer report on Marco Polo. The students were asked to trace their explorer’s journey on the globe for the other students. Kenny opted to paste a flat map to the poster he made instead, but many of the students did use their globe in their oral presentations.

Throughout the first part of this first semester they will add to the globe as they study the countries within the continents, as well as the animals, people, food, history and different cultures.

Some of what Kenny is learning, and Emelie is teaching, simply reinforces our big Geography focus last year, but studying the different continents, countries and people groups will be an entirely new flavor!

What are you doing this year for Geography? Are you using a particular curriculum or making up your own as you go along?

About the Author: A faith blogger and homeschooling parent, Heather Sanders is recognized for coining the term faithsizing to define her journey to find peace and contentment through Christ while embracing a simpler lifestyle.Visit her blog or follower her on Instagram.

Heather Sanders

Hi. I’m Heather, a freelance writer living in Huntsville, a smallish town on the tail-end of the East Texas Pineywoods.
Twenty years ago, I married Jeff, the love of my life, and shortly after, we chose to “go forth and multiply.” We have three kids: Emelie, Meredith and Kenny. We homeschool. It's what we do, and it works for us.
Tired of feeling overwhelmed, we recently "faithsized" our family into a 960 square foot lake cabin in need of renovation. I write at HeatherSanders.com about faith and simplifying your desires so you can be content right here and right now

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http://www.dinnersanddreams.net Nisrine M.

Really cool project. Thanks so mcuh for sharing this idea.

Tulip's Mom

I’ve been a big fan of globes since I was told (by a teacher!?) that our planned trip to Alaska wouldn’t work — that we couldn’t drive there because Alaska was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean near Hawai’i. She had only seen North America on a map. Sigh … good for you trying the papier mache route — our local homeschooling group is sharing one globe between the families due to a shortage of money. No one realized how much a good one really costs!

http://bunkersdown.com Ami

We are studying a lot of geography this year. We will do some general unit studies about Europe, South America, and North America. We are also doing more in-depth unit studies on France, England, Russia, Brazil, and Canada. I create our own curriculum by using our public library and the internet. But this way I can include individualized activities, crafts, and field trips. For example, when we study France, we will take a day trip to Chicago (a couple of hours away) to visit their Institute of Art. It has the largest collection of Impressionistic paintings in the United States.

Lou

I hope you are joking, or that the teacher was. I would be flabbergasted that someone could be a teacher and not have a better understanding of geography.

Della

This reminds me of the project that my now college age daughter made during her senior year of Spanish. She had to make a pinata. We used the oval balloon, same paper-flour technique and finished with a bee hive! We did pop the balloon inside and carefully cut a small hole in the bottom of the hive to place the candy inside. She painted it an orangey/brown mixture with brown stripes going around the hive. We found some honey bees at a party store and attached each one to a curled piece of thin wire and then glued them to the hive. It gave the effect of bees flying around the hive. It was adorable and she received an “A” for the project! Hope this idea will help someone else.

Jo

Just a small tip, paper mache balloons work better if you tear the newspaper into strips rather then cut it. It gives the paper a jagged edge and exposes the fibres of the paper so the paper sticks together better and it dries off quicker too🙂
I learn’t this from years of babysitting and making school projects🙂

http://cowpattysurprise.blogspot.com Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise)

Yippie~skippy!!! This Ozark Farm Chick thinks this is a fun hands on activity to travel the globe. Now this is the stuff long term memories are made of!!!

I once thought it was a cats pajamas idea for my Special Ed. Class to make paper rmache pinata pumpkin heads with the students to hang from the ceilin’ of our classroom. Although the finished product was the envy of our hall, gettin’ there was a whole other novel!!! This rockin’ teach only tried that one once! Heeehehehehee!!! :o)

Great Job kiddos….’can’t wait to see your ‘world’ winnin’ masterpieces!!!!

From the foggy fall hills and hollers of the Missouri Ponderosa, ya’ll have a wonderfully blessed day and a rockin’ weekend.

Now get….whatcha ya still doin’ here???? Fun’s awaitin……………………. :o)

http://www.omsh.com OMSH

I soooooo wish I knew this BEFORE we started. I will remember this for the future though! Thank you Jo!

TexasLea

You aren’t lying about the mess of paper mache and balloons! We did basically that same project our first year homeschooling when we did a unit study on dinosaurs. Instead of a globe though we made “eggs” by putting a little plastic toy dino inside our balloons before we covered them. This was of course done during the dampest fall ever and it took 3 DAYS for our balloons to dry in the garage with 2 layers of newspaper pasted on. Our dinos hatched from a kroger ad and the obituaries, we never did get those eggs painted. Frankly I was tired of the whole ordeal and the smell of the snot as Emelie called it totally done me in. Mad props to you guys for going the whole nine yards on your project!

We are using Geography Songs this year. Some of those tunes are pretty catchy.🙂

Amy

We are using Road Trip USA, by confessions of a homeschooler. We’ve only done Washington, D.C, and are easing in to it slowly, bus so far, I think it will be fun. My kids are 7, 9, 11.

http://www.hollypanter.blogspot.com Holly

so, just another thing to add to your ‘live and learn’ category but you can just buy a bottle of liquid starch to dip the paper in. it’s already cool😉, and it dries the exact same.

It was an AWESOME year of going around the world – all 7 continents – many different countries. It gave my kids a wonderful base in geography, knowing where places are in the world and also that God loves each and every people group.

Also, when we made pinatas while in Mexico, we used liquid starch and dipped torn strips of newspaper. Worked great!

http://mghollis.blogspot.com/ Melinda

We did this when my oldest wanted to make a pinata for my youngest’s birthday party. With the oval balloons, if you need an extra “hand,” you can put the pointed side down in an empty gallon paint can. It helps hold the balloon. really well. Also, for pinata’s, you really DON’T want that third layer. Paper Mache is really really strong. 😀 But I can see having a third layer for a globe.

AmyG

We are having so much fun with My Father’s World – Exploring Countries and Cultures this year! My kids ages 5-11 are really learning and loving geography and to care about the people around the world. WE are also using Visual World Geography videos – a really great way to “see” the countries in pictures. My kids can Id all of the countries in 3 continents so far. I am having a harder time keeping up with them :o)

Nicola

Brilliant idea – my kids are really aware of a wider world already (age 4 & 6) but then Ireland is probably smaller than some of the counties US readers live in!

When you get to studying Ireland let me know and I can send you over some stuff – I am constantly amazed at the errors on the web when I research with my kids – really basic stuff like the idea that corned beef and cabage is an Irish dish.

http://travelswithbarry.blogspot.com Jan B

Instead of the flour, water, and newspaper, you can buy a plaster netting at a craft store ( I know Michals has it). You cut it into the strips and apply with water. It dries much faster and harder than the flour mixture and is much easier to manipulate.
I am sorry I don’t have the official name, but the employees knew what I was asking for when I described it.

http://www.countryfriedeggroll.com/ Kristin @ Country Fried Egg Roll

well, i don’t have any homeschoolers (or kids, for that matter) but I have been studying up on my geography this year. I was terrible at it in school, but I’ve definitely learned more this year than I ever did in school thanks to living as an expat in China and doing lots of traveling. So far, I’ve been to: Shenyang, China (that’s where we live); Harbin, China; Seoul, Korea; Hong Kong; Beijing, China (3 times); Long Beach, California; all over South Carolina. And we’ll be headed to either Thailand or Vietnam, and then Australia and Japan coming up in the next few months. If you need a little eye witness research… just look us up at Country Fried Egg Roll! I have to say, seeing it in person is a totally mind-blowing experience. especially for this small town country girl!

Rachel Lea

My sister-in-law is considerably younger than I am, and we did this project for her 3rd grade class this past spring. My brother-in-law, who was in kindergarten, also participated because my husband’s family is all about the group learnin’. [If the timeline seems weird, my husband’s parents adopted late-in-life, so my siblings-in-law are all approximately 15 years younger than me.]

It’s a really good project, but can be really tedious with kids that are young or kids that have a short attention span — and we had one of each. I recommend having a place to hang your globes ready to go — Heather, the garage equipment was an excellent idea! When you get done with two sticky globes and you realize you’re unsure of where to let them dry — it’s not good!

Also, it might be a good idea to put a day or two between constructing the globe and creating the map. By the time we had a dried, blue globe; our 3rd grader was no longer enthusiastic about the project and we had a hard time getting her to accurately place and trace her continents. I had done geography homework with her before and I knew that she was capable of looking at her flat map and correctly placing continents on her globe.

I had her write the names of the oceans and seas directly on the globe, but we decided to make little flags labels for each continent (toothpicks and sticky flags). She could “conquer” each continent with a flag when she could identify it without the help of her flat map, and that did not take very long!🙂

For our kindergartner, he tried to copy the green shapes on his sister’s globe to the best of his ability, then he chose to embellish his with stick people painted in a few places. It was cute, but he also got to see basic concepts like: the earth is round, there are large bodies of land and water, and people live all over the earth.

I would recommend this project for kids of any age, whether you’re a homeschool family or a public school family. All the kids in my husband’s family attend the local public elementary school, but we try to make at-home projects into group projects and adjust the instructions as necessary for each learning level.

http://www.hollyhock-hill.blogspot.com Shonda

Now I want to make a globe.🙂
Please keep Loree Petite, the creator of Galloping the Globe and Cantering the Country, in your thoughts and prayers. She had heart surgery this week and is doing well. She is a great mom and a frequent poster on the Five in a Row message boards.

Carla in Austin

You can get bigger paper mache globe if you get one of the blow up “punch balls” — it is also more sturdy for attaching the torn paper strips. Also tearing paper strips is so satisfying, just don’t tear them too skinny.

I also bit the bullet years ago and found a globe that has the physical features drawn in and has the ability to be used like a white board, you can use expo markers on it and draw on it, label it, and then wipe it off. It is the coolest thing EVER!

http://makingfrosting.blogspot.com/ Sarah

I did this same project with 22 students when I was teaching kindergarten. They LOVED it; definitely a favorite project for the kids and me!

RuthT

Wow – that brings back memories! I use to use this same process to make pinata’s for the bazaars at church when I was in my early teens. My parent’s basement was full of pinata’s hanging all over to dry and decorate.

Paula P.

I use a quicker paper mache recipe that doesn’t involve cooking and it works wonders if you want to try if for future use. It’s one part flour to two parts water. You don’t want a thick paste, but have it somewhat runny. It works just as well as the cooked version .

Staci

I am definitely trying to use more geography in everything we do. But I am doing it more of a free style approach. In every subject if a specific place is mentioned we go look it up on the globe, world map, or U.S. map. I have also laminated blank U.S. maps that the kids use dry erase markers on to highlight states or locations we are talking about. I hated having to just memorize those things as a kid so I am just trying to integrate it into what we do everyday and see if that makes a difference. If not …. well I will probably have to go old school on them! : )

Tara Brooks

I love the idea of paper mache globe. My son made one when he was still in school. To help make it a one man job, instead of two, they each had a large coffee can to rest the balloon on as they where laying the strips around it.